Mid Month Inspiration - November 18

Hello there,

It's time for some mid month inspiration over at Stamping Sensations and here's the card that I've made for our theme 'Get Ready For Christmas.'

All stamps and the stencil that I've used on this card are by Inkylicious.

That's all from me for now, so I'll wish you a happy and peaceful day x

We Will Remember Them

No words today x 

A Head Full Of Worries

Hello there,

I do hope that you're all enjoying your weekend whatever you may be doing.

Now I briefly mentioned in my last post that I had won the Visible Image October challenge with my 'Glimmer of Light' wall hanging.  The prize was a £40 voucher to spend on Visible Image products and after much deliberation, I made my choice and ordered my new stamps.  They arrived with me the very next day and I couldn't wait to have a play.  Here's the first card that I've made with them:

I started making my background using Lemon and Turquoise Brushos, ensuring that I had more blue to the left hand side as this was to be my head full of worries and I wanted it to be darker than the right hand side of happy dreams.  I stamped the head slightly off center to leave room for the butterflies to fly out of the back of it.  I first used VersaFine Clair and then I heat embossed it with Black Sparkle embossing powder.  Next, I stamped the skulls, numbers and cogs as I wanted to give the feel of a cluttered head.  I used a touch of bleach to lift a little colour from the skulls and highlighted their teeth with a white gel pen.  I used Peacock Feathers distress Oxide ink to stamp the butterflies flying out from behind the head and the sentiment and larger butterflies were stamped using VersaFine Clair.  I fussy cut them out and added them to give my card some dimension.  These butterflies are so pretty and they stamp beautifully.  They are also very easy to cut out which is really useful if you ever need to use quite a few of them at once.

I was thrilled to win the challenge and I'm really happy with my new stamps.  Here's a photo of the ones that I chose:

Can you tell that I like butterflies?

All that is left to be said is a big thank you to Mark and Helen at 'Visible Image' for making such fabulous stamps for us all to play with and for their kindness and generosity in their challenges and giveaways.

Thank you to you too for taking the time to visit today and I hope that you enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Happy Crafting.

Butterfly Daisy Collage

Hello there my crafty friends,

I hope that you are all keeping well and happy.  I'm full of cold at the moment but on the plus side, that means that I can relax in my craft room for a while and take things a little easier.

I mentioned a few week ago that I won a raffle prize at the Stamp Magic show which consisted of items donated by the exhibitors that were there.  There were lots of goodies in the bag which I'm still working my way through but I have to say that I was blown away by the generosity of Chocolate Baroque  who had given an A4 stamp sheet.....'Butterfly Daisy Collage.'  The stamps are  absolutely divine and I've really enjoyed having my first play with them which has resulted in the following card:

 I've taken the first photo from the side as it's difficult to see the dimension of the butterflies from straight on.

I made the background using Brushos and I have to say that I love the vibrancy of it.  I stamped the image using VersaFine Clair (Nocturne) which is my favourite new ink pad as it pick up every single detail and on most occasions, it only takes one press to achieve a perfect impression, can't say how much I love this product!

I stamped a second image over the Brushos background and then fussy cut out the butterflies to give them some dimension.  I coloured the daisies using a white 'Posca' marker which is another new favourite as flows beautifully and covers really well.  I promise I'm not on commission for any of the products that I've mentioned but if I like something, then I have to say so.

I had another two very nice surprises this week.  The first one was on Saturday evening when I won Visible Image's October challenge with this wall hanging that I made recently.  I'll share more about that in a later post when I've had a play with my new stamps.  The second surprise was on Tuesday when I saw that I'd won a £15 voucher from Chocolate Baroque.  My name was selected randomly for commenting on the DT posts.

I'd like to thank Lesley and David from Chocolate baroque for their incredible generosity and for the hard work that they both put in to keep bringing us all such amazing products.  I love watching Lesley's demos on Hochanda and she's always coming up with new and interesting ideas, and techniques.

That's all from me for today as I'm busy working on some samples for Crafty Individuals' next show on Hochanda.  I'll let you know the date and times a little nearer the event.

Needless to say, that despite looking and sounding like someone from a cold and flu ad, I'm felling very blessed.

Take care and I hope to be back with you all very soon xx

Let's 'Get Ready For Christmas' at Stamping Sensations

Hello there my lovely crafty friends,

It's time for a new challenge at Stamping Sensations and our theme this time is 'Get Ready For Christmas.'

Here's the card that I've made:

I stamped the Penny Black image with StazOn black ink and then masked off the snowy area to keep it white while I coloured in the sky with my Ink Dusters.  The inks that I used were Distress: Stormy Sky, Fossilized Amber and just a very light touch of Wilted Violet.  Once my sky was finished, I shaded in the piles of snow at the side of the field and stamped in a few birds by Inkylicious.  The sentiment that I've used was a freebie from a stamp show a couple of years back.  I created the snow laden branches with white acrylic paint.

That's all from me for now, so I'll wish you a happy and peaceful day x